Chilling by the lake

Ah the bliss that comes from a warm sun, blue skies and a perfectly placed tent.

So last time I was at Dettifoss, knackered, awed and wondering how I the hell I was going to get to Myvatn when all there was to see for miles were tourist jammed cars and a stoney road! Luckily I’d underestimated just how pathetic I looked as I limped along to the waterfall, fully ladened with rucksacks. Cue Marcel and his family, who were on holiday from the Netherlands. Not only did they offer to help me by carrying my rucksacks (crazy people), they  also squeezed me into their 4x4 and took me from Dettifoss to Myvatn so that I could get a camping spot and get the weight off my knee!

I was so grateful and happy I actually gave away one of my bags of Kleina in thanks. Maybe its something about Iceland that makes people so helpful? So one bumpy car journey later (Marcel took the more direct ‘interior’ route to Myvatn rather than normal roads) and here I am...

Right on the lake, the camping site is just beautiful. Even if it is awash with midges!  So beautiful in fact that I decided to stay an extra night and used the following day to relax. 

Myvatn is right next to the funky mudpools and the crater that you would have seen a few posts back, when I was taken on a road trip by Jens. It’s got a massive bird population with  tonnes of ducks nesting to take advantage of the midges and other bugs that go crazy in the days of endless light, so it’s not the quietest of places. It does mean however that there are loads of interesting hikes to do and you could quite easily spend a whole week just hiking the different trails and taking photos. It was the perfect place to unwind and rest my aching feet, which is obviously why I decided that whilst I was there I’d walk out to Hverfjall (say Kverfjal) and Dimmuborgir (as it looks just roll your rrr’s a little!) and have a look around.

It takes about an hour to walk to Hverfjall through some crazy lava fields and it just so happens to be one of the most easily recognizable features in the Myvatn area. Well it’s not like you could easily miss this, is it?

Its over 2500 years old and apparently (according to the book and the german lady I was talking to there) its a classic ‘tephra cone’. In other words it looks like a volcano and actually was a volcano! It’s only 400m high so it’s quite a relaxing stroll to the rim and you can see for miles...

You can also walk all the way around it and there’s a slightly steeper trail on the other side that brings you out in Dimmuborgir, which used to be a lava lake. It’s a bit more exciting to look at though than a big flat bit of lava. When it was still active (oh so many years ago) the lake formed a solid crust, then when the wall that had been containing the lake collapsed and all the rest of the molten lava flowed out. Cue collapsing lava crust and resulting in huge weird formations just lying around... see?

Can you tell I was reading the ‘tourist information boards’? It’s such an awesome place, with loads of winding trails and you could easily spend hours there before you realise it. There’s also this cool ‘eye’ there that you can see Hverfjall through...

I bet if you get there early or really late on a sunny day you can get some amazing photos! You’d also miss the HOARDES of tourists during the day. Seriously if you hit it at the same time as the buses you’ll barely be able to move. It’s one of the first times I’ve been to one of the ‘tourist’ spots and actually seen more than about 10 people!

Now just over the mountain from Myvatn (its about 5 mins by car) there’s the ‘Nature Baths’ which are apparently like the Blue Lagoon but less crowded and just as beautiful. However as it’s 1400ISK to get in, it’s a bit above my budget, so I spent the afternoon soaking my sore shoulders and feet at the local swimming pool (350ISK), which had 2 decent hot pots, a bloody good sauna and a remarkably cool (for Iceland anyway) swimming pool.

After that I just chilled out at the campsite and watched the storm clouds build in the north, whilst listening to a large group of american students try to sing more than 2 lines of any song they could think of (luckily they were mainly in tune).

Then the following day it’s hitching time again! I now have a pretty concise list of exactly what I brought with me, that I definitely didn’t really, honestly, truly, NEED to bring with me! Everytime I put the rucksack on at the minute it seems to be getting heavier and heavier! More so when you end up walking for miles with it, whilst watching yet another large 4x4 with only 2 people in it, drive right by you. I have this theory that only the cool people, who I’d be interested in talking to, are the ones that stop anyway...

It’s also very possible that some eejit has posted a picture of me hitching, somewhere on the interweb as they made a point of slowing down to make sure they could get a good shot!

Anyway I did manage to get a hitch in the end. Which was good as there was nothing, not even a farm close the road, the entire way to Egilssta∂ir on the east coast.

As it was the guy who I got a lift from was on his way to the port at Sey∂isfjör∂ur to send his car to Norway, so the hour long journey passed really pleasantly. Once in Egilssta∂ir I had a mini mooch about the town before heading off to the library (they let you use the interweb for free!) and some quality chill out time with a good book, some awesome free coffee and another interesting chat, this time with the librarian (seriously if you ever need to know anything about a town, they’re a good place to start). They’d had a cultural evening the night before and the shark was a star piece. From the smell hanging about in the library, the rotted shark is more than just an acquired taste, its possible it could be used as some form of biological warfare.

After that I met up with Thrainn (its spelt differently but I can’t get icelandic symbol for the Th sound on my laptop), who was letting me surf his couch/spare room for the night. He’s such a lovely guy! After dropping my stuff of at his apartment, he then took me on a tour of the local area and we had dinner in this lovely wood just outside of Egilssta∂ir that’s filled with pieces of art...

Such a beautiful and relaxing place. Ooo and I tried some Icelandic stuff that's a bit like a liver pate/haggis and really good. There was also a forest cat that I seriously wanted to put in my rucksack and take with me...

Thrainn was also nice enough to indulge my church obsession and took me to see some of the churches in the area, the dig site for a monastery discovered some years back, as well as some of the other ‘sights’.

before brewing some excellent coffee and telling me ghost stories. Perfect for a limited nights sleep!

On the road again :)

Finally managed to get decent internet connection (even if I had to book a hostel to get it)! So here we go...

the original plan was to go from Akureyri to Grenivik then Husavik. It took quite a while to get a hitch (I managed to walk for about 2 hours before getting a lift) though, so I thought skipping Grenivik wasn’t such a crime and went straight to Husavik instead. 2 really nice hitches, one Icelandic guy taking a part to his son on a farm near the turn off to Husavik and another who used to be a FIFA ref and who now inspects other referees in Iceland. I really love speaking to new people, hearing their stories and trying to communicate in a language that I routinely pronounce so poorly that it’s more gobbledegook than words! It makes the journey more interesting.

The weather didn’t hold up as well as I’d hoped and by the time I got to Husavik it was very cloudy and raining. Hoping it would clear up I thought distraction would be the best tactic and went to the Whale Museum. One of my better ideas as it has both a great exhibition and helpful staff who watched my bags for me whilst I went round. The exhibition itself covers both whales as a species and the whaling traditions and history within Iceland. They also had quite a few skeletons of different types of whales that was pretty funky. It had a good level of information without necessarily being too ‘dumbed down’ (something that annoys the hell out of me in British museums).

Then with the rain still pouring I sheltered in the Phallological Museum. That’s right, a museum full of penises. Pickled ones to be precise. No human exhibits as yet (although there are a number of letters promising them once the owner is dead), but a lot of whales ones, walrus ones, mice, horses, pigs, sheep. You name it and they’re probably got one in there. The only disconcerting thing about the whole experience was the weird semen/formaldehyde smell it had!

Unfortunately by the time I got out, it was still raining. This time more a gentle misting but still rain. My only choices at this time was to try and carry on to Asbyrgi (sounds a bit like Owsbriggy)and camp there or to camp in Husavik and hope the morning would be a bit clearer so that I could get some decent pictures! The town harbour looks like it could be really lovely with a bit of sunshine. It’s one of the main centres for whale watching now, so there are quite a few nice yachts/boats there. Anyway, lovely little town, pitched the tent and hoped for better weather.

So much for the better weather. It might look a little misty but trust me. It’s definitely still raining at this point. I hate packing a wet tent, you just know its still going to be wet when you put it up, which means everything else is going to feel just that little bit damp. Still, on the bright side, at least the weather means that you don’t overheat when you’re fully loaded and walking for ages. Which is what happened again on the way to Asbyrgi. This part of Iceland doesn’t seem to be a) highly populated (yes I know, what part of Iceland does?), and b) not really on the main tourist trail.

This meant a good two hours of walking, listening to the wind and birds and hallucinating the sound of helpful tin cans. This happens a lot when I’m hitching, not just because I get  bored of the shoulder pain, but also because the wind does strange things when there’s no other noise. Also don’t be fooled into thinking you can wear your iPod and relieve the monotony either.  Unless you want to spend the entire time walking backwards, you will miss more cars than you want as you won’t hear the ‘road’ noise! I did manage to get 2 hitches (a couple of Icelanders and a german couple) eventually and got to Asbyrgi by about 10.30am.

Now the hike from Asbyrgi to Dettifoss (Iceland’s most powerful waterfall) is an ‘easy’ two day hike (35km - err 22ish miles), so even though the weather was still pants I thought I’d get started anyway. One of the icelandic guys in the car earlier had said the weather was going to get better after lunchtime. The first part of the hike takes you through some tight birch scrubland onto a heath like area where at some point you’d see the gorge in the shape of a horseshoe and would immediately go wow, just like this...

Confused? Yes well, we would all be looking at the pretty gorge if the weather had permitted but it was still hidden behind thick rainy mist, I thought it was time for another flower picture. Besides, these are actually on the heathland and are quite pretty.  I also needed something to distract me from the ‘you’re all on your own out here, apart from the mist wraith’ thoughts that were causing me to twitch (yes I know I have an overactive imagination)!

*cough* where was I? Oh yes, heathland. Oh actually wait a minute, there’s a legend saying that the hoof shape of the gorge was made by the hoof of Sleipnir, Odin’s eight legged steed. Einar’s mum told me that one. There’s obviously some interesting, but ultimately not as fun science explanation, but frankly I can’t be bothered to look it up this time!

I will say that the trail I was following was pretty well marked with handy yellow sticks at reasonable distances and it would be a really easy track to follow if you remember to look for them and don’t get distracted by the plants, bird calls, calls of nature and the long list of things that you could have left out of your increasingly heavy rucksack. Still, I’m a big girl and had both a map (which could have had a bit more detail) and two compasses (thanks Mike and Davide). So instead I just cheated and crossed this small and slightly boggy area...

and picked up the trail on the other side. I was pretty grateful that by this point the rain had let up and we were back to just cloudy skies. Everything seems just a little brighter when its not raining, even if the sun doesn’t make an appearance. It was also the start of the more interesting scenery.

You didn’t realise this was going to be such a long update did you? Feel free to take a break and get a coffee, there’s a lot more to come, although I promise the rest has a lot more pictures!

Hiking in Iceland - Day One

Quick recap, Asbyrgi to Dettifoss I’ve been walking in the rain for about 3 hours and its now stopped. Got that? Good! Now, I promised you some more photos, so here we go...

Now its a bit difficult to get the scale on these I think, but the bits of rock you can see drop down for about 50ft or so, maybe a little bit more (I left my tape measure at home) and I loved the way you could see where the river had literally carved its way through the landscape. There were a number of these in this section and they’re just on such a large scale I find it hard to describe them. They also bring you out at a really good viewpoint for the rivers current position. Seriously, you’re walking along looking at the above landscape, wishing for something a little more exciting than barren heath land and then you get this...

not only that but you’re assaulted by the roar of the water, its pretty shocking as there’s very little build up to it. It was also a pretty good place to take a quick stop and just enjoy the first ‘wow’ moment of the walk. After that you cut through a little more heathland and a weird grey, ashy/sandy area and this huge reddy, orange cone called Rau∂hólar, which is another shock as up until then everything has been green or brown. You can kind of see it in the distance on this picture...

Although admittedly not very well, I would have taken one when I was closer but I was getting a bit knackered by this point and the ashy/sandy bit was a total bitch to walk up/through. Just past that though you get to see this...

which from a distance looks like some weird Lord of the Rings, Troll Palace. It’s called Hjó∂aklettar, and isn’t that far from the midway camp ground. Which also means that you get to walk really close to it, forget quite how tired you are and scamper around like an excited squirrel. There’s hardly anyone around most of the time and no barriers so you can explore as much as you like. Here are a few close ups...

Personally I think the last one looks a bit like a mad elephant.

After this it was a pretty short stroll to the campsite and the simple bliss of removing my backpack and falling to the floor. Obviously I stopped to put the tent up first...

Hiking in Iceland - Day Two

I woke up on this morning laughing. Not for any particularly funny reason, more for just how much my feet and shoulders were still crying for mercy! After walking for about 6.5 hours the day before with both backpacks on (I think they weigh about 16kg together) my body was not impressed. Now I know that there will be some of you reading who have just had the thought ‘is that it?’ and fair enough. However I’ve only really done shorter day hikes before and I’ve usually carried at least half that weight.

Anyway, it was still a bit cloudy when I got going, but in ‘the sun’s not far away’ kind of way. Which was great as there was quite a bit to take photos of!

You see? This walk is probably one of the better ways of showing you how quickly the landscape changes in Iceland, the last one makes me think Lion King for some reason.

I really enjoy the changes, suddenly the rucksacks didn’t feel that heavy and I found myself walking quicker. It might also have something to do with the sun too, but hey, I’m not complaining. I would also like to point out to those that are familiar with my fear of heights and tiny trail routes that it wasn’t all flat going and it would occasionally give me some little joys like the below.

Which I managed to do without bursting in to tears. Yes it’s embarrassing to admit but it usually happens a lot when I’m hiking anything that has a bit of a of a drop close to the trail.

What can I say, I’m a work in progress!

At the bottom I was rewarded with this.

Such a beautiful sight. I felt that way even though my boots were totally soaked from my first ‘river’ crossing. The water was only just below knee level, but it was extremely cold! I also got to see these because of it...

How beautiful is that? The trail also takes you up a series of steps right next to the waterfall so you get to admire it the whole way up. After about another hour I made the halfway point and tried to dry out my clothes a little. Well, as well as you can dry out clothes in not very warm sun and 30 minutes.

So far I’d been walking for 3 hours and when I checked the helpful walking chart I realised I’d only got another 4.5 hours to go! Well at least I got to look back at this and think ‘I’ve walked further than the horizon’. That’s pretty cool in my book.

After that thought I continued on the trail, which basically sticks right next to the gorge as it goes up to Dettifoss, so we’re talking lots of rocky trails...

and lots of ‘lets see how close to the edge we can get’ trails (check the bottom of the picture if you can)...

Along with the occasional reward of stunning vistas (I think that’s a pretty appropriate term)...

However by this time I’d been walking for close to another 4 hours and was negotiating a side canyon trail (it was either that or go up and down it) and I was honestly and truly knackered. Due to that and the continuing loose stones on the ground I took a tumble and managed to do something to my knee that made it bloody painful to put weight on it. I should have been paying more attention but luckily, and you might not be able to see it in this photo. Just on the horizon there was the ‘road’ to Dettifoss for any aspiring off-roaders.

Which proved to be a complete bonus as by the time I’d limped there I was almost too knackered to continue. Luckily I was picked up by some lovely Austrians who took me to the car park and then it was only a short limp to actually get to Dettifoss itself.

Personally I think it was worth it!

Getting ready...

to hit the road again. I can't believe I've been at the farm for a whole month, it only seems like a week or two at the most! It's been really quiet the last couple of days as the girls have been off camping with their grandparents. It's probably one of the main reasons for oversleeping this morning.

The other reason was spending a few hours with Inga making Kleina. They're a traditional Icelandic... well doughnut I think. Or at least it has the same kind of texture and a similar taste. They're highly addictive and go really, really well with milk. Yup that's me living the rock and roll lifestyle!

Anyway just to prove to you that they're really nice, I think you should make them. Here's the recipe.

Inga's Awesome Kleina


Ingredients
400g butter
400g Caster sugar
2 eggs
2kg Plain Flour (yup that's right 2kg)
6tsp Baking Powder
2tsp Bicarb (although if you can find Ammonium Bicarb I think that's closer)
1 litre of soured milk (or maybe buttermilk?)
30mls of Cardamon (they sell it in liquid form here - maybe a scrape out a few roasted pods instead?)

mix the butter and sugar together
Add Eggs and beat
Gradually add flour, bicarb and baking powder to the mixture, along with the milk and Cardamon.
Mix until it forms a dough then knead it until it's a nice smooth texture.

Then rollout (not too thin) and cut into diamond shapes

cut a small hole in the middle

fold one end of the diamond through the hole and pull through

Finally deep fry them until golden/dark brown

Now I'll be honest and say I don't know whether the type of oil you use will change the flavour, Inga uses a traditional Soya oil, but it's possible that a good veg oil should be fine? Let me know how it goes.

Oh and the above recipe makes an awful lot of Kleina, enough to fill two carrier bags easily! So maybe halving the recipe would be a good thing, they're far too easy to eat and you could find yourself groaning at the size of your stomach as you reach for that one last wafer thin mint...

Tomorrow I'm moving on to Grenivik which is just over the fjord, and hopefully on to Husavik which is North East of here. It's one of the main whale watching areas of Iceland and I'm tempted to go but I don't really want to spend lots more cash before I get to Norway. Then on Sunday I'm going to Asbyrgi which is the start of a 2 day hike to Dettifoss to see the biggest waterfall that Iceland has to offer. On Tuesday I'm hoping to hitch to Myvatn again to walk round one of the pseudocraters before meeting up with another couchsurfer on the Wednesday in Eglissta∂ir.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some internet access there too and will update you (or risk even bigger posts than previously).

After that I'll be heading south. I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to stop on the way as yet. I guess it depends on what I see and how easy the hitching is at that point. I do have a flight booked to Oslo for the 27th July, it leaves at 7.30am and I should be there by 12pm local time. Then I'm going to take stock and see what I can do from there. I'm meeting up with my friend Rachel in Bergen on the 8th August for a few days and will also (hopefully) be meeting up with my friend Hui later in the month.

I'm so excited by it all I can't stop grinning (although I'm not sure I have since I left the UK)!

So I'll catch you all soon.

Bye Inga, Einar, Jóhanna and Valger∂a. You've been an awesome family to spend time with it's been great.

Don't forget to come and hang out when I (eventually) get back to the UK!
xxx

Man flu and 'When Birds go bad'

Bear with me on this one, I've had Man Flu for the past 5 days and haven't got a clue in what order things have been happening recently!

First things first, and if you've checked them out already ignore this, Hjaltalin. They're a band I saw recently in Akureyri and I can't recommend them highly enough! They're a 7 piece band and often play with a full orchestra backup. click for Hjaltalin's MySpace page. I really enjoyed their sets (they played two) it's really uplifting and happy stuff.  They were supported by Lára Rúnars, she's really talented and has a habit of playing the piano like a beautiful, fashion forward, marionette. Anyway you should also give her a listen too click for Lara runars MySpace page.

After 3 Vikings (the beer, not the men) I managed to walk back to the farm and also remembered to take a picture of these...

all the traffic signals in Akureyri have hearts on the red light, its cute!

I seriously hate having a cold, technically you're not that ill that you can't do something. However, you also don't feel well enough to do anything! I'm so pathetic when I'm ill, hopefully though we're coming to the end of it, it's being helped along by copious amounts of Echinea (expensive placebo anyone?) and lots of healthy food - well some healthy food. Einar made traditional Lamb soup the other day which was really, really tasty. The lamb here is ridiculously good!

It's a good thing it tastes so nice as he made enough to last the week!

We're still waiting for the weather to stay dry enough to finish off the hay bales, hopefully with the change to fairly good weather today we should be able to get it done before the end of the week.

Speaking of which I finally managed to get to Grimsey click for map today and stood within the Arctic circle.

even though it's just a signpost at the bottom of someone's garden it still felt a little exciting. Maybe because I'd had to run the gauntlet of the dive bombing Arctic Terns to get there?

They maybe tiny but they're actually a little scary when there are so many of them, all eager to peck you silly. I know that I definitely resembled some crazy old lady, hunched up and waving my tripod wildly above my head, whilst crab walking my way up the road. I'm also convinced that the islanders don't have cars for transportation, more as a perfect form of defense. After all there's only one road and you could walk to most places in 20 mins max its that tiny!

I did get a chance to see some Puffins though, and got a lot closer than the camera makes it look. For some reason it barely zooms to what your eye can see, let alone the advertised 3x zoom.

They're very cute and apparently taste a little like liver...

By the time we made it back, the weather had finally broken and the blue sky was back.

I'd almost forgotten what it was like! Oh, this is Dalvik by the way. It's where I caught the ferry to Grimsey. It smells so strongly of brine and fish that initially it's almost hard to breathe!

Only 2 more days left on the farm, and then back to the traveling. I'm both looking forward to it and dreading it too. I've had such a lovely time here with Inga, Einar and the kids that its going to be weird being on my own again. Not only that but I'll have my backpack fully loaded, lets hope the work at the farm has given me a little extra stamina!

Catch you soon
x

Down on the farm

it's been busy, busy, busy! The weather hasn't been so great - it's been raining for the past 4 days. However it just reminds me of England (even if you are all currently mid heatwave!) and we've been getting loads of things done on the farm. I've managed to clean out the main and secondary barns. By clean I mean shovel a whole lot of sheep shit, old hay and well...  more shit really. You know the weird thing? I've loved every minute of it! I'm knackered and my arms are sore but I've got a big (not shit-eating) grin that won't go away. Here's some of the pile that was left after 2 tractor loads...

Looking at it now, I wonder if I accidentally cut out the semi nude models casually posing to the left?

I've also been clearing the top fields of various bits of debris that accumulate, in fact I think it's possible that I found the place that plastic sheeting goes to die. You think there's just a little bit to pick up but then... maybe I should start planning a 'Farm-erobics' DVD?

It did mean that I got to be a bit closer to the horses that Einar and Inga own. There's probably about 20 in the herd and none of them are currently broken to ride. They are insatiably curious and couldn't resist trying to work out what the hell I was doing up there.

Did I mention they were curious?

Inga's also started harvesting some of the Rhubarb that they're growing and I'm looking forward to tonnes of rhubarb recipes before I go. Only a week and bit to go. I need to start planning the rest of my trip. There's so much still to see and a lot of hiking to be done! I'm going to try and hitch hike the rest of the way to save some money and if the weather gets better I'm hoping to get out to an island called Grimsey, which is just inside the Arctic Circle.

Other than that it looks like I'm going to be in Norway for the 5th August and I'm going to see what's around farm wise before making any other decisions. There seem to be a good couple of options one of which is close to Trondheim (north) and the other is outside of Oslo (south). I'll let you know how it goes.

Catch you soon
x